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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Rocket carrying secret payload launches from California

Most of the "real" secret stuff doesn't go up in rockets anymore. Rockets make great big noisy decoys while keeping the other military "toys" hidden from public view and scrutiny. We humans are so easy to please, throw an old bone out every now-and-then to gnaw on and keep people satisfied and pacified, works every time. "They" whistle and the media eagerly comes, waging its tail, ready and eager to bring out the so-called news to keep the masses "enlightened".

A rocket carrying a top-secret payload blasted off Tuesday from the California
coast.

The Delta IV rocket lifted off at 4:12 p.m.
from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 130 miles northwest of Los
Angeles.

"We've just seen the successful liftoff" of
the rocket, launch commentator Don Spencer said in a webcast.

Since the launch involved a classified cargo
for the National Reconnaissance Office, no details were immediately available
about whether it was boosted to its intended orbit.

The reconnaissance office, which oversees
the nation's constellation of spy satellites, has kept mum about the purpose of
the mission and directed United Launch Alliance to cut off the live broadcast
three minutes after liftoff.

Intelligence analysts think the rocket
carried a radar imaging satellite capable of seeing at night and through bad
weather. In recent years, the United States has worked to phase out its fleet of
older, heavier radar reconnaissance satellites with smaller but equally capable
ones, said Charles Vick, a space policy analyst with the Globalsecurity.org
think tank.

Such radar satellites would be able to zero in on countries of interest and
see details that typical Earth satellites can't, experts said.

Tuesday's launch involved reconfiguring the rocket to add on two strap-on
boosters to provide more thrust. The protective nose cone enclosing the payload
also had to be made larger.

ULA, the joint venture of rocket builders
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., said it was the first time the Delta IV
had been launched this way.

The launch was delayed nearly a week as
engineers worked to fix an issue with the upper stage engine.

The next launch out of Vandenberg will be a
flight test of the Minuteman III on April 10.